The System of Dante's Hell (Evergreen Black Cat BC-118)

154 pp. Follows a young black man living nomadically in big cities and small towns in the Southern United States, and his struggles with segregation and racism. The book correlates the man's experience with Dante's Inferno, and includes a diagram of the fictional hell described by Dante. Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi Jones, was an American writer of poetry, drama, essays, and music criticism. Baraka’s career spanned nearly 50 years, and his themes range from Black liberation to White racism. Baraka's poetry and writing have attracted both extreme praise and condemnation. Within the African-American community, some compare Baraka to James Baldwin and recognize him as one of the most respected and most widely published Black writers of his generation. Others have said his work is an expression of violence, misogyny, homophobia and racism. Regardless of viewpoint, Baraka's plays, poetry, and essays have been defining texts for African-American culture.